Socket wrenches have been developed over the years in many configurations based upon certain desirable features such as leverage, compactness and variety of applications. It has been common to design wrenches in a single unit to have several openings for different sized nuts.
In 1896, Kelsea was issued U.S. Pat. No. 564,025 on a bicycle wrench comprising a circular plate that had openings for three different sized hexagonal nuts. In use, the plate would be placed with one of the openings over a similarly sized nut and the plate rotated to tighten or loosen the nut.
In application Ser. No. 09/372,363, assigned to the Applicant and incorporated herein by reference, a similar type wrench comprises a cylindrical wall with inner plates mounted on each end of the cylinder. Each plate has a central opening and the edges provide openings for open sockets for various sized nuts. In use, the central opening is placed over a nut, the wrench is slid with the proper opening to enclose the sides of the nut and the cylinder is rotated to tighten or loosen the nut. With the two plates, one on each end of the cylinder, one can have openings sized for nuts gaged in inches and one can have openings sized for nuts gaged in metric.
In 1919, Marcmann was issued U.S. Design Pat. No. 53,597 on a wrench comprising a bar with a globular shape on each end. Each globular shape provides four openings on the periphery of the globe parallel to the axis of the bar and one opening on the top of the globe at each end of the bar. This configuration provides ten different sized openings with advantageous leverage for the eight openings on the periphery of each globular end.
It is an object of the current invention to provide improvements over the above three inventions that result in a compact, easy to use wrench that can be used in a variety of situations.
This invention will comprise a cylindrical configuration with the openings in the wall of the cylinder rather than in plates on the cylinder ends as in application Ser. No. 09/372,363 cited above.
The cylinder in a preferred embodiment will have at least eight openings (hexagonal, square or other) for eight different sized nuts. The outer cylindrical surface will actually be an octagon so that each of the openings will have a flat surface for engaging the surface surrounding the engaged nut.